About the artwork

Sea of Rocks, artwork by Emmanuel Malin

Emmanuel Malin's Sea of Rocks is a story of loneliness. In a red desert a magician invokes forces beyond his control.

Many of Malin's themes return in this original digital art print. There is the spiritual component and the elements of nature such as earth, rock, fire, rain clouds and... Koi carps! The image also features a masked figure and depicts man’s struggle with his environment.

Malin says of this: "Nature in my work is often a character, an actor. One that dominates the human figure who I often draw humbled or hidden. My work also revolves a lot around themes of masks, paganism and forgotten rituals, which converge in the idea that man masks himself or hides behind them and invents beliefs out of fear and admiration of an overwhelming nature. I think that even today, now that our modern faiths are more focused on technology than animism, we remain inhabited by the same anxieties as always and are trying to dominate these mysterious energies around us."Sea of Rocks depicts a story of loneliness. In a red desert a magician tries to invoke forces beyond his control.

Many of the themes of Emmanuel Malin return in this work. There is the spiritual component of the basic elements in nature such as Earth, Rock, Fire, Rain clouds… and Koi carps. The image features a masked figure and the work depicts man’s conflict with his environment. Malin says of this: "Nature in my work is often a character, an actor. One that dominates the human figure who I often draw humbled or hidden. My work also revolves a lot around themes of masks, paganism and forgotten rituals, which converge in the idea that man masks himself or hides behind them and invents beliefs out of fear and admiration of an overwhelming nature. I think that even today, now that our modern faiths are more focused on technology than animism, we remain inhabited by the same anxieties as always and are trying to dominate these mysterious energies around us."

Other work by Emmanuel Malin

L'Homme des Bois

L'Heure du The

Farandole

More about the artist

Emmanuel Malin

"I work fairly instinctively", says Parisian artist Emmanuel Bastid (Malin is his artist handle) about his work process. "With each new work or each new commission I try to capture the invisible and try to create several layers of interpretation in an image. The artworks really only find their final form while I work on them.

I like images that allow me to tell my own story, wherein - while working on them - visual clues appear that assist my storytelling. I hope that that feeling of exploration transcends to the person that looks at the images. I try to be chatty in my work also and to give things substance by mixing figurative and abstract elements and big gestures with delicate refinements."